Cook Islands

The Cook Islands (Cook Islands Māori: Kūki 'Āirani) are a self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand, in the South Pacific Ocean.

It comprises 15 small islands with a total land area of 240 square kilometres (92.7 sq mi). The Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers 1.8 million square kilometres (0.7 million sq mi) of ocean.

The population of the Cook Islands is nearly 20,000.

The capital (and largest city) is Avarua.

The main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga (around 14,000), where there is an international airport.

Defence is the responsibility of New Zealand, in consultation with the Cook Islands and at its request. In recent times, the Cook Islands have adopted an increasingly independent foreign policy.

With over 90,000 visitors travelling to the islands in 2006, tourism is the country's number one industry, and the leading element of the economy, far ahead of offshore banking, pearls, marine and fruit exports.

There is also a much larger population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand, particularly the North Island. In the 2006 census, around 58,000 self-identified as being of ethnic Cook Island Māori descent.

The Cook Islands is not a United Nations full member but participates in WHO and UNESCO, and is an associate member of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

The languages of the Cook Islands include English, Cook Islands Māori (Rarotongan) and Pukapukan. Cook Islands Māori and its dialectic variants are closely related to both Tahitian and to New Zealand Māori. Pukapukan, by contrast, is considered closely related to the Samoan language. Both English and Cook Islands Māori are considered official languages of the Cook Islands.

For more details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_Islands

Geography and administration of the Cook Islands

The Cook Islands can be divided into two groups: the Southern Cook Islands and the Northern Cook Islands. For a map see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Cook_Islands

In the lists below, those in italics are administrative subdivisions.

Southern Cook Islands

1. Rarotonga (capital)
2. Aitutaki
3. Atiu
4. Mangaia
5. Manuae (uninhabited, governed by Aitutaki)
6. Mauke
7. Mitiaro
8. Palmerston Island
9. Takutea (uninhabited, governed by Atiu)

Northern Cook Islands

1. Manihiki
2. Nassau (governed by Pukapuka)
3. Penrhyn Island, also known as Tongareva or Mangarongaro
4. Pukapuka
5. Rakahanga
6. Suwarrow (also governed by Pukapuka, not counted with the inhabited islands since there is only one caretaker living on it)

Rarotonga

Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 14,153 (census 2006), out of the country's total population of 19,569.

The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga. Because it is the most populous island, Cook Islanders may often be referred to as Rarotongan, but they may come from one of the other 14 islands in the group, such as Aitutaki or Mangaia.

Rarotonga is a very popular tourist destination with many resorts, hotels and motels. The chief town, Avarua, on the north coast, is the capital of the Cook Islands.

Rarotonga was divided into three main districts or vaka (tribes):

1. Te Au O Tonga on the northern side of the island (Avarua is the capital)
2. Takitumu on the eastern and southern side
3. Puaikura on the western side.

These were abolished in February 2008, despite much controversy.

Outer islands

There are island councils on all of the inhabited outer islands except Nassau, which is governed by Pukapuka (Suwarrow, with only one caretaker living on the island, also governed by Pukapuka, is not counted with the inhabited islands in this context).

Education in the Cook Islands

Ministry of Education

The Cook Islands Ministry of Education has responsibility for education. Its web site is at http://www.education.gov.ck and there is a list of Directorates at http://www.education.gov.ck/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=153&Itemid=17

There is a list of the schools, over 30 in number, at http://www.education.gov.ck/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=14&Itemid=5

Learning for Life, the Cook Islands Education Master Plan (2008–2023) is a available at http://www.education.gov.ck/docs/education_master_plan.pdf. There is only one mention of ICT - "Provide for the establishment and resourcing of specialist areas eg ICT, Performing Arts". There are no uses of phrases such as "e-learning", "distance learning" or "flexible learning". yet more generally, the Ministry is keen to foster ICT - as noted in the advertisement for a Chief Information Technology & Communications Manager at http://www.education.gov.ck/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=701&Itemid=1

Teaching of ICT

As an element of all educational programmes in the Cook Islands, the Ministry of Education introduced ICT in 2001 by developing a draft Technology curriculum. Within this draft curriculum, ICT was included as an equally valuable area of learning. The teaching of ICT has been active since then, mostly in secondary schools and students can sit of for the NCEA Level 1-2 of the New Zealand assessment programme. In 2005, there were 5 primary schools (Avarua, St Josephs, Nikao, Arorangi and Te Uki Ou) offering computer education. Six secondary schools in Tereora, Titikaveka, Nukutere, Araura, Mauke and Mangaia, were already offering ICT studies.

Internet in the Cook Islands

(sourced from http://www.islandsbusiness.com/islands_business/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=19966/overideSkinName=issueArticle-full.tpl)

Telecom Cook Islands has secured a large chunk of bandwidth from O3b Networks to provide Cook Islands businesses, 15,000 residents and more than 100,000 annual tourists with speedy web access.

O3b Networks is set to initiate its satellite-delivered service to the Cook Islands in mid-2013, following the launch of O3b’s initial global constellation of eight Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites.

More Bandwidth, Minimal Latency

“O3b’s affordable, high-speed capacity will open the door to new opportunities and businesses that come with Internet speeds five to six times faster than our current broadband capabilities on the islands,” noted Jules Maher, CEO of Telecom Cook Islands. The country’s provider of integrated communications services signed a long-term agreement with O3b to utilise the Ka-band satellite operator’s bountiful bandwidth and its new fully-managed O3b Trunk solution. Launched last month, O3b Trunk is a scalable, bundled IP trunking product designed to deliver affordable, fiber-like capacity anywhere within 45 degrees north and south of the equator. O3b Trunk pricing and scalability will eliminate cost barriers to broadband and what Maher calls the “curse of remote distances” in emerging and under-served markets. “The days of painfully slow download speeds and frustrating user experiences are numbered on the Cook Islands,” said Maher. “Soon our businesses, residents and visitors will have the same capabilities to reach out to the rest of the world as other connected countries and communities around the globe,” Maher added. “It’s tremendously exciting and represents a historic milestone. “O3b delivers more bandwidth at lower latencies and costs,” explained Steve Collar, O3b Networks CEO. “That’s a powerful formula for telecom service providers determined to quench the growing thirst for broadband and connectivity in the countries, regions and communities they serve.”

Fiber from the Sky

“Using O3b Trunk, a broad range of service providers can simply select the speed of the connection they want and we provide them with the fully-managed solution,” noted John Finney, Chief Commercial Officer for O3b. “We really are providing a solution that no one else can deliver,” he added. “There’s no need for cell towers or fiber infrastructure with O3b. An operator can quickly and easily deploy fast broadband or 3G and 4G services using O3b’s mobile backhaul and our IP trunking offers O3b Trunk,” Finney said. The nearest terrestrial fiber to the Cook Islands is in Tahiti, realistically out of reach for the isolated islands nation. O3b combines the reach of satellite with the speed of fiber at a price capable of making the Internet a truly global experience. “O3b offers amazing technologies, the equivalent of having a fiber cable dropping from the sky,” Maher said. “The arrival of O3b and the high-speed broadband and enhanced mobile capabilities it represents greatly increases the incentives for a broad range of businesses to consider moving to the Cook Islands,” he added. While the tourism industry drives most business on the islands, Maher is already hearing about interest among some high-tech firms looking to relocate.

ICT in Education in the Cook Islands

There is a report from UNESCO Bangkok office on ICT in education in the Cook Islands but it is dated 2003. See

• Cook Islands: ICT Use in Education, by Ruby Vaa, http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ict/Metasurvey/cookislands.pdf

An ICT Snapshot - April 2012

(source:http://www.education.gov.ck/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=814&Itemid=0&dir=%2Fhome%2Fedunetwebmaster%2Feducation.gov.ck%2Fdocs%2Feducation_newsletter%2Fnewsletter-2012&download_file=%2Fhome%2Fedunetwebmaster%2Feducation.gov.ck%2Fdocs%2Feducation_newsletter%2Fnewsletter-2012%2FApril+Newsletter.pdf)

The Policy, Planning and Review staff did a survey of Schools in Rarotonga and the Southern Group on ICT policy, access and use. Although this data is a year old, it does give us an idea of current practices. Here is what we found:

• 61% of schools have an ICT policy, however, three schools’ policies were in draft form and had not been endorsed by the school committee. Of the 61%, 70% of Rarotonga schools had a policy whereas only 50% of the Southern Group Islands had one in place.
• Teacher access is generally not a problem with 89% having access. Only one school in the southern group and one school on Rarotonga did not have access to the computer available to teachers.
• 44% of the schools restrict access to the computers; most of this is restricted to school hours only. Some schools did mention that if teachers requested to use the computers after hours they would ensure this happened, but overall it was found there was not the demand by the majority of schools. 40% of Rarotonga schools restricted access to teachers compared to 50% of Southern Group Islands schools.
• 78% of students have access to computers and are usually timetabled to visit the computer suite each week. Students living in Rarotonga have a higher chance of using ICT with 90% of schools allowing access. Only 63% of the Southern Group Islands allow students access to the computers. The remaining schools have very limited access with only 2-3 computers, so it is not viable to timetable classes to use the ICT equipment.
• Only 50% of schools allow internet access to the students; the rest of the schools limit it to research only or do not allow internet access at all. Very few schools are making use of the knowledge and interactive learning on the web; in fact some schools are trying to protect students from inappropriate sites while others are concerned that the cost of accessing internet sites is increasing telephone accounts. One school stated that the internet usage is not budgeted for and that it causes more trouble than good.
• 22% of schools have user agreements in place;this represents all the schools on Rarotonga. Interestingly though, one of these schools has a user agreement in place but does not have teacher or student access to the computers. None of the Southern Group Islands’ schools have a user agreement in place, however, all the schools were given templates by the review officers to adapt for their use. The Ministry of Education is hopeful that these will all be in place prior to the next audit.
• Security and regular back ups of networks are not well done in the Cook Islands. Only 33% of schools check the security of sites accessed and regularly back up files. Of these schools, the Southern Group Islands are slightly higher than Rarotonga with 38% checking and backing up in the Southern Group schools compared to only 30% in Rarotonga.
• Only 44% of schools rely solely on the Ministry of Education’s IT Division, Edunet, for its technical support. The remaining schools use a variety of assistance including family members and private businesses. Several schools have a paid technician who works set hours per week.
• The issues and concerns for schools include the need for more computers, bigger computer suites to cater for classes, professional development for staff, the need for suitable computer furniture, anti virus programmes expired with no operational budget left to maintain them, no national curriculum to be guided by, lack of trained staff within schools to maintain networks, and the continued expense incurred from internet usage, power and printing cartridges.

Distance learning and virtual schooling in the Cook Islands

(sourced from http://www.education.gov.ck/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=181&Itemid=60)

Students in the outer islands (all the islands except Rarotonga) have traditionally undertaken Distance Education courses because their schools have difficulty employing secondary teachers.

Rarotongan secondary schools now also offer distance courses to their senior students to expand their subject options. The Correspondence School (TCS, Te Kura) in New Zealand provides learning programmes over a range of subjects and levels - from Year 9 to NCEA. There are currently 138 Cook Island students engaged in 411 TCS distance courses.

For further details see TCS in the Cook Islands

Technology is also helping to make things a lot easier for our students to receive and return course material. Completed work in booklets that was once posted back to TCS HQ in Wellington, is now scanned onto CD and posted to Rarotonga for emailing on to Wellington teachers. When outer island schools get broadband, they will be able to email their work directly to the teachers themselves.

Outer island schools already have email facilities (at low bandwidth), and sometimes email teachers to discuss work.

Teachers are already returning their marking comments via email to the students.

Virtual schooling via Skype

The Ministry of Education plans to produce more locally contextualised programmes for junior secondary and as broadband becomes available, interactive video-conferenced lessons from school bases on Rarotonga or elsewhere will further enhance learning opportunities for these students. A project is just starting (2012) to deliver courses by Skype to some of the 15 outer islands.

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